"Green laws boost clean-up industry"
I
Have companies around the globe really become "house-proud", or is planet earth just in
for a spring cleaning? It is hard to say - but one thing is for sure; the environmental
sector is en-joying a boom. The market for pollution control technology is on a steep
exponential growth curve, which seems to be interminable. Especially the European
companies put down their names for an immense part of the expansion. But what is the
precise nature of this sudden environmental con-cern? After all the deteriorating state
of the environment is hardly a novel phenomenon, to say the least.
Just how vigorous this potential goldmine is going to be for the clean-up industry
ac-tually depends on law and order, so to speak. That is to say that one of the main
reasons for the turn up is new legislation. Recent EU-directives as to pollution may
cause heavy demands on the purse of one company and consequently pour that money down the
pockets of the clean technology indu-stry. Moreover the deadlines for plants to meet
EU-directives are getting close, and everything se-ems to show that the laws will be
enforced. Yet far from all companies have to meet with the raised finger of the
law to start investing in their environmental responsibilities. Investments on a
volunta-ry basis are often due to the fact that it makes good ecnomic sense or because it
gives the corporate image a face-lifting.
Seen from a geoprahical point of view Germany and primarily eastern Europe form
tremendously good breeding ground for the sale of clean-up equipment. As a result of
opencast mi-ning of lignite coal in Poland, for example, a huge clean-up is left, which
will amount to billions of dollars. However accidents also occur at sea, where a spate of
oil tanker disasters are likely to fill out the order book at oil cleaning industries.
Nevertheless a stroke of bad luck is far from necessary in order to make firms
under-stand their green obligations. The power of the consumers has been on the increase
over the last few years, and the public environmental image means more to a firm than
ever before. The average con-sumer going down to the grocer's for a few necessaries is
starting to attach importance to something else than just the product itself. How is the
detergent wrapped - is the paper bleached? Is this bottle reusable? Are these outdoor
tomatoes? - and so on. Personally I don't think that you notice it, as you're
walking alongside the shelves in the local supermarket - but you do pay more attention to
ecological messages on the products than you did just 5-10 years ago. After all this is a
topic very much in the public mind, so I guess it's quite natural to get involved one way
or the other. I know from my own experiences that we have started to put down
se-veral ecological products on the shopping list at home, when going to the grocer's.
Products like: carrots, rye bread, milk, and cheese appear regularly on our shopping list
and always in ecological form. But just recently another common purchase was substituted;
red wine, French red wine to be exact, had to give way to a Spanish bottle instead. The
day by day "revolution" on the dinner table was my mother's contribution to the
prevention of the French nuclear tests. French products in gene-ral was banned on our
shopping list - and still are. How far her exertions have got appreciable effect with
monsieur Chirac is dubious - but many a little makes a mickle, as they say!
On a more global scale this environmental consciousness of the consumers was to be
witnessed just a couple of months ago. The sinking of the drilling rig "Brent Spar" at
open sea cau-sed an outcry all over Europe, and customers "rippled their muscles". Shell,
the mastermind behind the sinking, was boycott by a vast number of both bulk buying
companies and ordinary consumers which resulted in a more environmentally friendly
solution at last. To my mind this way of carrying one's point is absolutely
excellent. Henceforward I feel that the consumers should utilize "the power of their
shopping list" far more frequently. As to "Brent Spar", we kept that one afloat and got
it sent to the breakers pre-venting the environment from further molestation. Let's only
hope that this will go for the French nuclear weapons as well - before it's too late!
"Consumers, unite!"
III
COWIconsult
Parallelvej 15
2800 Lyngby
Denmark
The European
Att.: Michael Bond
Orbit House
5 New Fetter lane
London EC4A 1AP
U.K. 12 June 1994
Dear Sir
Thanks for your letter of 6 June. I regret that I unfortunately can not answer your
question, since we are a consulting firm which is not directly involved in any
environmental acitvities.
The environmental sector has truely enjoyed a boom during the past few years. Industry is
begin-ning to take its green responsibility seriously, consequently we help the companies
in finding out whether they can make profits from a green image or not. For instance we
do calculations for com-panies so that they can see the financial consequences of any
environmental investments.
That is why we can not be of any assistance to you regarding information on special
projects. However we do enclose our latest annual report, where you will find the names
of some Danish firms, which have been involved in either the cleaning of polluted soil in
eastern Europe or the sale of equipment for monitoring oil spill from ship tanks in the
North Sea. Perhaps you can obtain fur-ther details at the mentioned companies.
Moreover we refer to our office in London, 35 Bassinghall Street, London EC2V 5DB.
We wish you the best of luck on your articles.
Yours sincerely
COWIconsult
Marlene Eriksen
Marlene Eriksen
Information Manager
Encl
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